Monday Morning Marketing Tip - July 19, 2010

Rob Eagar's Monday Morning Marketing Tip is written to help authors, publishers, and organizations spread their message like wildfire.

This week's focus:

If you're a sports fan, you've no doubt followed the drama of NBA basketball star, LeBron James, leaving his hometown team in Cleveland to join the Miami Heat. The interesting part, however, is that James stated his primary reason for defecting was to join two of his closest friends, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, and create their own mini dream team. He believes that they have a greater chance of winning a championship by joining forces and relishing the camaraderie.

This same idea can benefit you as an author. Writing and marketing your book can be a lonely business. Pulling the weight all alone gets exhausting. So, why not copy LeBron's motive and join forces with other authors to help boost your platform. For example, you could partner with small group of similar writers and:

· Go out on a book tour together or conduct a local book-signing as a group.
· Share free resources or special content as prizes to give away to your readers.
· Trade or combine your personal databases of media contacts or influential leaders to send out newsletters and press releases.
· Meet regularly as a support group to discuss best practices of book marketing.

There's strength in numbers. Take advantage of the potential friendships and marketing power of working together with your fellow authors.
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If you have a personal example of generating success by working together with other authors, email it to me at Rob@StartaWildFire.com and I'll share it with everyone here.

Here's a good tip from Diana Cosby:

"Rob, I enjoy your newsletters and always read them for valuable insight. Joining with other authors to share idea, tips, or do book signings is a great idea. To me, you take this sharing to another level when you make the venture one that matters on a personal level. My goal in life is to make a positive difference in others lives. One way I do this is to donate 10% of my royalties to a charity of my choice. One of my charities is Habitat For Humanity, with one of my life goals to sponsor an entire home. In addition to donating to Habitat For Humanity, when a new home is under construction, I organize a group of romance writers for one of the build's days. I also contact local media to let them know the details, which often is covered in press and on local TV. In the end, everyone wins, more so as it's so personal. To me, that a needy family will receive a home is such a blessing, and to know that however small, that I've made a difference in their lives is something you can't buy."

Chew on this:
"By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped." - Ecclesiastes 4:12

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© Rob Eagar 2010. All rights reserved.

Monday Morning Marketing Tip - July 12, 2010

Rob Eagar's Monday Morning Marketing Tip is written to help authors, publishers, and organizations spread their message like wildfire.

This week's focus:

During the recent housing crash that devastated our economy, a lot of builders built homes based on "spec." With spec homes, the house is planned, designed, and built before a prospective buyer has been found. Spec home building has the benefit of speedy construction. But, it comes with the risk that once the home is built there may not be a buyer. This exposed risk eventually put a lot of builders out of business and left a lot of new homes sitting dormant.

Sometimes, authors and publishers make a similar mistake. They produce books assuming people will buy them. Yet, the author never seeks critical feedback from focus groups during the manuscript phase. Or, the publisher never conducts a true buyer analysis. Books are published in quantity hoping that enough succeed to sustain the business.

Avoid writing a book based on speculation or assuming that people will buy it. Instead, take time early in the process to test your ideas on enough people who qualified to give you beneficial feedback - even if it's negative.

For example, when I wrote my first book, I assembled three separate focus groups that covered the main demographic segments of my intended reading audience. I gave my manuscript to these individuals and asked them to honestly critique my content. Their feedback caused me to rewrite every chapter three times each and my first chapter nine times! You can imagine how frustrated I felt when their criticism was negative. But, once the process was completed, I knew I had a dynamite book because my intended readers told me so. Today, that book is still selling in most Barnes & Noble across America.

As you work on your next book, consider these points:

· Do I know the exact kind of results my book can produce for the reader - because I tested it first?

· Have I experienced these results in my own life?

Take a lesson from the housing crash. Don't publish a book unless you can guarantee a buyer.

Chew on this:
"80% of all word-of-mouth still happens offline. The Internet just helps it move faster."
Andy Sernovitz

Author of Word of Mouth Marketing


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© Rob Eagar 2010. All rights reserved.

Monday Morning Marketing Tip - July 5, 2010

Rob Eagar's Monday Morning Marketing Tip is written to help authors, publishers, and organizations spread their message like wildfire.

Happy July 4th Holiday!

This week's focus:
God created humans to be responsible individuals. We know this is true, because we're usually happiest when we have responsibility and take care of it, such as handling our job well or being a loving parent. In contrast, irresponsibility usually leads to blame, which leads to conflict by blaming others or blaming ourselves. Where there's blame, there's shame. And, shame shuts people down in addition to destroying their future. Thus, a person will never reach his or her full potential by shirking responsibility. Excusing and blaming is like running in place - you wind up exhausted and you've gone nowhere.

This universal principle applies to you and me as authors. How? Responsible authors realize that the success of their books lies primarily in their own hands, rather than in their publisher, agent, or publicist. For instance, irresponsible authors tend to blame their publishers for low book sales. Similarly, these authors don't stay up-to-date on new trends or technology that can help market their books. The problems they face are everyone else's fault.

Avoid falling into the mental trap of blaming others. You will be a happier author if you take responsibility for your book sales and platform growth. Try looking at your writing career as the responsibility to help other people, regardless of whether you write fiction or non-fiction. Are you holding yourself accountable to teach, inspire, and satisfy your readers?

If you're dissatisfied with your book sales, listen to any blame talk that's running through your thoughts. Be honest and identify how much of the problem is attributed to you. Then, make a conscious effort to take ownership for your part of the issue and take responsibility for making progress.


Chew on this:
"Are you hiding behind your prayers to avoid taking responsibility?"
Andy Stanley
Senior Pastor, North Point Community Church
(Never thought you'd hear a pastor say that!)


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© Rob Eagar 2010. All rights reserved.

Monday Morning Marketing Tip - June 28, 2010

Rob Eagar's Monday Morning Marketing Tip is written to help authors, publishers, and organizations spread their message like wildfire.

This week's focus:
Some people mistakenly believe that conducting a radio or TV interview is a prime opportunity to teach a large group of listeners. They see the microphone and suddenly think class is in session with a captive audience. However, this mindset forgets two problems: 1) You're audience is never really captive - they can always change the channel. 2) The average interview lasts less than 10 minutes, which isn't enough time to teach much material.

Most media programs are formatted for short, 8 - 10 minute segments with commercial breaks. So, you generally have much less time on the air than you think. Therefore, it's crucial to use your brief interview to tease the audience, rather than teach the audience. Teasing the audience doesn't mean giving fluff. Instead, it means giving listeners enough nuggets of value to make them want more.

If you gave an interview today, what nuggets of value could you concisely discuss that you would make the audience desire more of you?

Chew on this:
"How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver." - Proverbs 16:16

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© Rob Eagar 2010. All rights reserved.

Almost Half of University Library Books Never Used

Interesting article today from the Publishers Weekly daily news update:

At the recent annual meeting of the Association of American University Presses in Salt Lake City, "publishers experienced shock and awe at a session on demand-driven library acquisitions. Michael Levine-Clark,collections librarian at the University of Denver, reported that 47% of books acquired from 2000 to 2009 were never checked out, a phenomenon echoed by Stephen Bosch, in charge of budgets and procurement at the University of Arizona library, where over the past decade $19 million has been spent on books that were never used. Facing both budget and space pressures (Denver was required to give up 20,000 square feet of shelf space to student use), both libraries have joined a usage-based purchase program with YBP Library Services in which an e-book can now be rented when requested by a library user; and after a certain number of requests demonstrate the book’s likely continued use, the e-book is then acquired at the hardcover list price."

No wonder college tuition is so high! Someone has to pay for all those library books that students never use. Goodbye heavy, expensive textbooks and reference books. This further drives the path towards e-books and e-readers taking over the university market.

Monday Morning Marketing Tip - June 21, 2010

Rob Eagar's Monday Morning Marketing Tip is written to help authors, publishers, and organizations spread their message like wildfire.

This week's focus:
I have several author clients who have sold over 100,000 (a few of these have sold over 1,000,000 copies!). I believe they should be proud of their success. Becoming a bestseller is a rare achievement that most writers only dream about. However, the marketing trend among many high-level authors comes across as "it's all about me."

For instance, I recently visited a few big-time author websites (not my clients) whose Home page was actually the Store page for their books! From the beginning, their marketing seems to imply, "I don't care about you. Just hurry up and buy my book." Other examples include bestselling authors who plug their books throughout an entire speech. The audience sits there feeling like they're stuck in an infomercial.

You can't sell books if you don't let readers know that they exist. But, you can't endear readers to your message and grow a larger platform if you don't meet their needs first. The main issue that concerns most people is "How can you help me?" To establish the value that you offer your audience, consider these two questions:

· How do I improve the condition of my audience?
· What tangible results do I know that my readers experience?

The key to effective marketing is showing how you meet people's needs, even if you write fiction. Therefore, your marketing efforts should be reader-focused, rather than self-focused. Examine all of your promotional materials, such as websites, bios, blogs, and brochures. Do they express a selfless desire to help others? Or, do they convey a sense of self-importance?


Chew on this:
"The problem with using points during public speaking is that it doesn't reflect the world we live in. We don't live our lives by points. We live by our emotions. We respond to what we see, taste, and feel. So, there's no compelling reason (for the audience) to remember a list of points."
Andy Stanley, author of
Communicating for a Change

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© Rob Eagar 2010. All rights reserved.

Monday Morning Marketing Tip - June 14, 2010

Rob Eagar's Monday Morning Marketing Tip is written to help authors, publishers, and organizations spread their message like wildfire.

This week's focus:
When you market a product or service, don't make the mistake of expecting perfection from every activity. For example, let's say you're an author who sends out your first monthly newsletter. But, after a few weeks, no one invites you to do a speaking engagement, conduct a media interview, or buy a bunch of your books. That's doesn't mean that your newsletter was a failure. There are many variables that affect people's buying behavior, including the fact that most need to hear about you 4 - 7 times before they decide to act.

Marketing isn't about striking it rich with every activity you do. Instead, your goal should be to build a "body of work" over time that generates momentum and draws attention to you. People are sick and tired of authors who constantly plug their books and businesses who hype their products. In contrast, people are hungry for experts who can provide information that helps solve a problem or improve their life.

Your body of work consists of all the various ways to let people know that your message can help them. For example, you can send newsletters, post advice on your blog, speak in public, get articles published, conduct media interviews, keep your website updated, produce spinoff products, create podcasts, etc. When you do several of these activities on a consistent basis, then you will position yourself in a way that draws people to your product or service.


Chew on this:
"Saying 'No' is the key word in defining your identity, your individualism, or, in organizational terms, your brand. If you cannot say No, you do not have a brand, for your brand is defined by what you say No to."
William Ury, author of
The Power of a Positive No


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© Rob Eagar 2010. All rights reserved.

June Amazon Comparison of ECPA Publishers

Unfortunate news this month. The information service (www.TitleZ.com) that I use to generate my Amazon comparison of ECPA publishers has changed the way they report their Amazon rankings. At the beginning of June, they started simultaneously including both Kindle and print versions of books when I conducted a specific publisher search.

The problem is that now you can't tell which book is a Kindle version and which is print without doing a very time-consuming manual search. TitleZ has given no explanation for why they suddenly started reporting their Amazon ranking this way.

Because of this problem, I'm unable to generate my monthly research based only on print versions of books. If TitleZ goes back to the former way of reporting, I'll gladly provide my free research again and post the results on this blog.

Sorry for the inconvenience. I appreciate everyone's support of this monthly research that I've provided to the industry for the last 18 months.