BOOK NEWS FROM THE POLITICAL WORLD

OBAMA FLYING HIGH – BUSH IN FREEFALL 

Sales of books by President elect Barack Obama have soared into the hundreds of thousands during the past two weeks. Publishers Marketplace reports that seven contracts for books about Obama have been signed since Election Day. The frenzy is almost as high as it has been for the tell-all exposes that appeared during the Bush administration. 

Conversely, speculation about a memoir by our almost ex-President is not very encouraging. Most publishers see it as a potential loser or at least nowhere near as strong as, for example, the Bill Clinton autobiography that got off to its start with a seven-figure advance. 

The reasons given for the negativity include Bush’s incredibly low performance ratings and anticipated poor foreign sales because of his flat popularity overseas.  Nonetheless, polls show that he still hangs on to support from a low of 20% to a high of 31% of the populace. At the lowest level, that alone could produce sales of more than 5 million books. Not bad for a loser! 

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IS THE FUTURE OF

THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW IN QUESTION? 

Every author would swap his/her soul for an appearance on the Oprah TV show. Now rumor are beginning to fly that it may shut down its cameras in the fall of 2011 when the famous lady’s current contract with Discovery expires. According to a report in MediaBistro.com, Discovery’s CEO David Zaslav announced last week that he anticipates the syndicated show will probably close shop at that time. 

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A QUICK ALERT FROM BOOK EXPO

FOR AUTHORS INTERESTED IN SIGNINGS 

Book Expo  America announced that information on autographing sessions at the fair will be distributed by e-mail on December 11 to all authors who signify their interest. Send your contact info to dholton@aginet.com. Include your name and e-mail address.  Deadline for submission for this year’s event is March, 2009.  

Expo will be held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan from May 28 through May 31. You should be aware that the strongest attendance at this huge event always occurs when New York City is the venue. 

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Charlie’s Choice

Weekly Tips to Help You Write,

Publish & Promote Your Work 

TAPPING INTO BROADCAST

TO PUBLICIZE YOUR BOOK 

      Few promotional vehicles have the widespread audience of broadcast. With a 15-minute interview, you can touch a million or more people on the largest stations, both radio and TV. But to reach the highest levels, you start at the bottom and work your way up the exposure ladder to realize your dreams of a bravura performance on Oprah or any of the other top shows. 

      Any broadcast exposure, no mater how local nor how small, is worthwhile exposure. It will help you sell your books. A small audience of targeted buyers on a niche radio station can produce more sales than a heftier broadcast with many listeners who might not be interested in your subject. Just as important is the practice you receive as you polish your thoughts and your delivery on the smaller stations.  

Attracting a Producer 

      The key is to give the producer reason to believe you will be an interesting and informative guest. The way to do that is to devise the “perfect hook” for your particular expertise. The best hooks are soundbytes that can be used to attract listeners to the show. They are short and pithy, but tell your story effectively. Follow up the hook with a convincing query, and you will snare the producer if he/she is able to envision a powerful show developed around your hook.       

      Always remember that it is not your book, it is YOU that the producer, the host and the audience are interested in. Your book is simply the vehicle that expresses your expertise. When you are on air, it is your challenge to demonstrate it.  

      There are several ways to attract a producer. (I should tell you here that almost every broadcaster has a producer and it is he/she who is responsible for assembling the programs that the host then sends out over the airways. The producer is the person to contact.) 

      Of course, as in all types of publicity and promotion, there are highly competent professionals available with a stable of strong contacts in the broadcast world. If you wish to hire a PR professional, your task is to narrow your choices down to those that have the contacts with shows that would be likely to cover your topic. Professional help can be costly, but if you try to do it yourself, it will take some time to develop those contacts. Be careful not to allow yourself to be distracted from your basic task—writing—because if the publicity is effective, your audience will be looking for more of your work.  

      If you decide to try and reach out for a producer on your own, but don’t know the name, address or phone number, call the station and request them. Some authors make contact by sending a query letter directly to the producer. Another approach is to send a press release highlighting the unique hook of your topic and why you are the perfect person to discuss it.

Some authors cold call the producer directly. I don’t advocate initial phone contact with a busy producer, but there are stories of success using this technique. 

      All of these methods take time and effort. An alternative is to advertise in one of the several print magazines that are regularly sent to producers. Radio-TV Interview Report is one of the leaders in this field. It claims a circulation of 4,000 among producers looking to book guests, and is updated twice each month. Writers, speakers and others advertise themselves and their expertise on its pages. RTIR reports it has successfully placed more than10,000 advertisers on the air.  Click on www.rtir.com for complete information and pricing.  

Opening the Door 

      The goal, of course, is to gain as much word-of-mouth publicity about your book as possible. Radio and TV are ideal for that task. A listener hears an interesting program, talks to others about it and they all very possible buy your book. No it’s not that matter of fact. Only a small percentage of listeners will buy and possibly even fewer of those that the listener talks to. But whatever the percentage, it is bolstered by the fact that there is no more convincing publicity than word-of-mouth. The large reach of broadcast and the number of listeners it produces can stimulate a lot of welcome chatter.  

      As I stressed above, you must remember is that the show is all about you, not about your book. Before you contact a producer, you must develop that punchy and informative hook. An excellent way to study effective hooks is to watch a TV newscast. When the content stops for a commercial break, the announcer will throw out a hook to engage you so that you suffer through the ads while waiting for the interesting information that follows them. You’ve heard it again and again, “Stay tuned. Next we’ll give you the inside scoop on Sarah Palin’s borrowed wardrobe.” While I am no fan of CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, he does this particularly well. 

      Once you’ve created your hook, it will determine the balance of your interview preparation. You must think through the subject very carefully and highlight those aspects that you feel will be of interest to your audience. Listeners want to hear about issues related to your subject, not about you or your book. And that’s what the producer cares about. If you devote most of your interview to “hawking” your book, you will destroy opportunities for future appearances. The publicity for the book has to evolve from the occasional mention of it not as a pitch, but obliquely to clarify what your are talking about. 

      For example, the subject of my book The Writer Within You deals with writing and publishing for retirees and other seniors. But no one wants to listen to a dissertation on how to accomplish those tasks. They are interested in the end result. How it benefits them or helps to fulfill their desires. Therefore my topic might be “The value of your memoir to family members and future generations” or ”Supplementing your retirement income in these tough economic times by writing how-to articles based on the knowledge you gained during your career.”  Those are just two simple off-the-top-of-the-head examples of what I mean.  

      These are both very closely related to issues covered in the book, and will allow me to casually refer to something I wrote in the book. 

      This approach doesn’t apply only to nonfiction books. Fiction writers should search their text for themes and use them to develop engaging  content for the interview. Again, let me give you a simple example of what I mean. I published a novel Blood Bond several years ago. It is the story of two brothers from an Italian immigrant family and the bond that held them together despite horrendous conflicts. As a result, I might pitch a producer on an aspect of family relationships or the values of the tight-knit, matriarchal, first generation Italian family. Since the book is set in a deteriorating Northeastern city that during its thriving heyday attracted hundreds of immigrant families to work in its mills, I might decide to talk about the ramifications of an economic turndown. A very appropriate subject today. 

Maximizing Your On Air Time  

      Here are a few suggestions for ensuring that you harvest all the benefits

of your appearance on the broadcast and not disappoint your listeners. Know in advance the action you want your listeners to take. Make certain your book is available on Amazon.com as well as Barnes& Noble.com and Borders.com if and when the listener decides to buy it. If the appearance is on one of the major TV networks have an 800 phone line set up in advance to take orders. Your long distance provider can arrange that.

      Send thank you notes to the producer and the host. You may want to ask the producer for a testimonial and a taping of the interview, if it is available. Most important of all, book more and more appearances, for the results are cumulative. You may get off to a slow start, but the impetus will build as you continue actively, and book sales will certainly follow. 

      Next week we’ll continue our look at book promotion with a discussion of  the mechanics and promotional value of book signings and public speaking, both highly effective sales tools if used well. See you then.   

Keep Writing!   

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SOME GOOD NEWS AT LAST FOR

HOLIDAY BOOK SELLING 

Welcome news for those of us who market our books on the Web.  

eMarketer, one of the most reliable digital info sources on the Web, predicts that “Online is expected to be one of the few bright spots for retail this holiday season.”  Its gurus estimate that retail e-commerce sales will grow by 10.1% in contrast to overall retail sales on and offline that will increase a mere 0.5% to 1%according to Archstone Consulting. Deloitte predicts overall growth at 2.5% to 3%. 

With sales during the holiday season representing almost 25%  of annual retail e-commerce volume and the faltering economy boosting books to the top categories of holiday gifts, this is awfully good news to those who take advantage. 

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FOR A CHANGE GOOD NEWS

IN THE MAGAZINE WORLD TOO 
 

The Wooden Horse reports that the Fall 2008 MRI magazine audience research showed that a number of magazines have actually gained readers, even some that the experts claimed were slipping. Among those that posted double digit advances were Real Simple, Men’s Fitness, In Touch Weekly  and Forbes.    

Newstand sales grew for The Economist (9.9%), Women’s Health (11.5%), National Geographic (9.9%), Fast Company (23.6%), House Beautiful (9.2%) and New York (3.4%).

MORE DETAILS ON THE MONITOR’S DECISION TO BECOME

THE FIRST MAJOR PAPER TO CONVERT FROM PRINT TO DIGITAL 

The Christian Science Monitor, a widely respected daily newspaper delivered principally by postal mail, has announced a dual distribution platform beginning on the first of April, 2009. Daily content in print will end and an online format called CSMonitor.com will launch.  

The daily news content will be delivered as a multi-page PDF that is easy to download. It will be subscription-based and updated continuously throughout the day. The goal is to “deliver the Monitor’s journalism more quickly, to improve timeliness and relevance and to increase revenue and reduce costs,” according to Judy Wolff, chair of the Board of Trustees of the paper’s sponsoring Society. 

A weekly summary edition will be available in print for subscribers. The lead article will be an in-depth analysis of a major global issue or trend. Dispatches from its correspondents around the globe and from Washington, as well as a number of features and photographs, will round out the weekly publication.  

These innovations come in the 100^th anniversary year of this outstanding newspaper. The actual birthday is later in November. Over those years, the Monitor has captured seven Pulitzers and a variety of other accolades. Three of its editors have served as presidents of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. 

When a paper that is so highly respected and so highly honored pioneers this dramatic move, can it be a harbinger of things to come? Concerned journalists are watching with bated breath, although the Monitor states that very few jobs will be lost under this conversion. We’ll see.  

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BLOG SHOPPER READERSHIP HAS GROWN

300% OVER THE PAST FOUR YEARS 

Jupiter Research, a division of highly respected Forrester, recently completed a study of more than 2,000 online consumers that revealed some fascinating results. 

• The number of shoppers who read blogs at least once a month has grown by 300% over the past four years.
• 38% of frequent readers said blog links were their best tools to find new blog content.

34% listed web search and just 11% selected blog search engines.

• 50% of blog readers state they find blogs help them make purchasing decision.
• Frequent blog readers state they trust blog content more than content on social

networking sites when they make purchasing decisions. 

It’s reassuring to hear once again that blogging has assumed a respected and valued position in today’s communications and commerce worlds. We’ve come a long way, baby! 
 

The Publishing Industry 

Northeast Rep Firms  Merge 

Valuable news for authors and pubs in the Northeast. Publisher’s Weekly reports that on the first of the year, Billbooks & Associates, a rep firm covering New England, and Sirak & Sirak Associates covering the mid-Atlantic region, will join forces to service the book trade in 11 Northeastern  states and Washington, DC.  

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Charlie’s Choice

Weekly Tips to Help You Write,

Publish & Promote Your Work 

MAKING THE MOST OF THE BLOGOSPHERE

TO PROMOTE YOU AND YOUR BOOKS 

      Last week, we discussed how best to use the Internet to make the world aware of your book by circulating articles that you write. This week we shift gears to review the newest tool in an author’s promo kit and one of the most effective if used well. 

      The communications world has been dramatically—and it looks as though permanently—changed by the remarkable growth in the number of blogs. Technorati, the guru of blogging, reports that it indexes more than 1.5 million new blog posts in real time every day. Estimates of active blogs vary from 12 to 15 million and growing. 

      The blog serves a variety of masters. Some use it simply as a play toy, recording and reporting their daily activities or personal interests. Others feel it is a tool to express personal observations and circulate opinion. It can be used as an advertising vehicle to produce income. But it is best recognized by the public as a vastly important source of news and opinion, rivaling the print press. For authors, it serves the invaluable goal of introducing themselves and their work to thousands of people on the Web. 

Blogging for Authors 

      There are many strong reasons why authors should create and maintain their own blogs.

Readership of blogs is growing by leaps and bounds. Approximately 60 million Americans now read blogs. They are dynamic with content constantly changing in contrast to web sites that are informative, but static. 

      The only costs a blogger has are time and brain power. Most experts believe that search engines give preference to blogs in their rankings. The blogger community is close knit and bloggers freely support their peers.  

      Book review pages are fast fading from newspapers as more and more papers have either condensed their coverage of publishing or eliminated it altogether. Bloggers help to fill

this  void. 

Planning Your Blog  

      The two “C’s” to a successful blog are Consistency and Content. You must blog on a regular schedule whether it be daily or weekly, and you must maintain that schedule religiously. Surfers seeking information come to know and rely on your blog and want to know when they can expect new posts. Many of the leading bloggers, particularly those involved with current news,

post throughout the day every day as news breaks. If you are not prepared to devote the time and energy, don’t begin.  

      Plan your blog carefully. Select a topic in which you have both interest and knowledge enough to carry for a lengthy period of time. You’ll be doing many, many post. Be sure you can sustain them. For example, every week I write an informational column on writing, publishing or promotion (Charlie’s Choice) surrounded by four to six short articles about current industry news. To find the best news briefs, I scour a number of writing publications throughout the week.  

      Once you pick your topic, create a punchy title that reflects it. The content of your posts must be consistent with that subject so stick to your primary topic when you post. Since surfers identify you with that subject and come to your blog to find it, they are seldom interested in extraneous musings. If you are not a news blog, but want to comment on a news event, tie it in some way to your topic. 

      Write in a chatty, informal style. Blogs should be easy reading. Try to put some “spice” into your content. Don’t simply report on an event or a trend, put a “spin” on it. Comment on it. Express your opinion. 

Getting Recognition 

      Try in a variety of ways to develop comment from readers on your blog. Ask a question. Include some controversy. Perhaps even mount a short survey occasionally. Include an area for visitors to post. 

      You in turn should be posting commentary on other blogs, particularly those that deal with your chosen topic. Post your comment and sign it with some identification that will make readers of that blog aware of yours.  

      Don’t be frightened by controversy. Readers enjoy it. Just don’t write emotional tirades; a blog is not a soap box.  Never be afraid to use someone else’s pertinent quote, but be certain to give the person and the publication complete credit. You can comment on it if you choose.  

      When you have the time, review books on your topic written by other authors. Whenever possible, link your posts to a current event. Be certain there is a legitimate tie-in to your topic. Just last week, for example, my lead post was about the Presidential election. Since my blog pertains directly to the writing and publishing fields, the aspect of the campaign I chose to comment on was the abuse of the airways by candidates who produced commercials and broadcast statements that they knew were blatant untruths. 

Getting Started 

      Launching a blog is a “piece of cake.” Perhaps that’s one of the reason why so many have proliferated. You can find free programs that include ready-made templates and complete directions. Your blog can be up and ready to post within just 15 minutes. 

      For those of you who want to customize your blog and create a more professional look, consultants are available who will prepare it in its entirety. All you have to do is post your copy to the final product. Or you may prefer to have your consultant do the posting. Many non-professional bloggers as well as those who prefer to spend their time researching and writing pay their consultants a modest fee to do the posting and maintenance. 

      Most experts seem to agree that Blogger (www.blogger.com), a free blog creation program owned by Google, is the easiest and fastest program to use. It offers users a three-step process. First you create an account. Next you choose a name for your blog and then select from the many templates that Blogger offers. You are then ready to post. The site has a detailed and easy-to-follow help section. 

      To post on Blogger, you enter your text into designated box with what the program calls its Editor’s Tool. Once you are comfortable with the post, you click on “Publish,” and the post appears on the top of your existing blog as its latest addition. Other popular free programs include www.wordpress.com and www.livejournal.com.  

      For those who want greater sophistication and a more customized professional appearance, a widely used program is www.typepad.com. Its fees start at $4.95 per month for the basic program with options to buy more sophisticated technology in higher level programs. The company also offers a posting service. Click “Blog Creation Programs” on your favorite search engine to find many more programs. 

Creating Income 

      Your blog can also serve as a tool to generate income. You can join an affiliate program in which you allow advertisements of selected products on your blog. When an item is sold, you receive a commission, usually a percentage of the selling price. Click on www.clickbank.com,

one of the leading affiliate sites with more than a thousand products to select from. That may help you better understand how the affiliate programs work. Amazon also operates an affiliate program with author blogs.   

      Once your visitor volume increase substantially, you can begin to solicit banner or display advertising for products that are relevant to your topic. However, you must have a solid following to be able to convince an advertiser to work with you. Click on “Web Advertising Agencies” to find them. Also consider using the AdSense program offered by Google. Yahoo too offers a search marketing program. 

      Those of you who are serious about becoming part of the active blogosphere should consider subscribing to www.bloghology.org, a magazine devoted to blogging. 

      Next week, we continue our look at book promotion by turning our attention to the world of broadcasting and how radio and television can promote your writing to a broad cross-section of people.   See you then. 

      Keep Writing! 
 
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THE ECONOMY IS FORCING HOLIDAY SHOPPERS 

TO PLAN NEW WAYS TO PINCH THEIR PENNIES 

A number of studies indicate that books still loom as one of the preferred gifts for this economy-trashed holiday season, as this blog has reported before. Harris Interactive expands on that finding with a study in October on money-saving strategies planned by Internet shoppers. 

Cutting back on the number of gifts tops the list for 80% of respondents, with 63% planning to purchase less expensive items (hopefully books!).  Shopping online for better deals was picked by 32%. Another 24% stated they would save on gas costs by shopping online. (Watch oiut, B&N and Borders.) 13% of those shopping online say they plan to consolidate purchases to save shipping costs. 

The study found that that most hoped to cut costs by using Internet shopping tools like price comparison sites (Yahoo! Shopping and others) search engines, web sites offering coupon discounts and by responding to promotions that arrive by e-mail.  

Get your online promos geared up and don’t overlook promotional displays for bookstores.

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